First Look: Sen Pad Thai in Net Loft at Granville Island

The newest Angus An venture, Sen Pad Thai, opened up a couple weeks ago (early May 2017) in the Net Loft building across from the Granville Island Public Market. (It’s the same building that houses Paper-Ya.) The whole Angus An group of restaurants has had a busy season. Only two weeks previous, Freebird Chicken Shack reopened in a larger space at River Market (New West) with a revamped menu. I’ve written about this group of restaurants before:

I’ve also been to Maenam a couple times (before I started this blog), so I think I have a bit of a tough love kind of relationship with the whole group. I hold them to high standards (if you flaunt Michelin-star experience, then I must watch for attention to detail, technique, consistency, and above all, taste — actually, those are my criteria all the time). If those high standards aren’t met, it kills me inside as a fan and as a customer.

IMPORTANT: this whole Net Loft building closes daily at 7:00pm. If you’re still eating inside at 6:50pm, the security staff will come around and warn you that they’re going to close the doors soon.

This may already be my favourite place to eat on Granville Island. Or at least most promising. Seating is all shared Net Loft common area seating, except for the three chairs at the counter.

As is typical with the Vancouver scene, restaurants are always looking for staff. In my short chat with the woman behind the counter, the staff are all from Thailand and have worked at Maenam. One person worked for Fat Mao as well. So in that way, it’s a smart extention of Angus’ businesses.

Be aware that English is a second language for the staff here. Depending on your exposure to Thai accents, you might need a bit of patience and understanding when talking to the staff. I had minimal problems but I could see other people having trouble. But hey, this is Vancouver! Bring on the rainbow-coloured mosaic!

They serve the Pok Pok Som drinking vinegars! The perfect thing to cut the spice.

It’s spot prawn season! Their special curry this week was Green Curry Spot Prawns on Rice for a not unreasonable $20. The serving size (shown a few photos below) is actually pretty substantial and fair.

The menu. Sorry for the glare from the lights. Their full menu is available online or right here:

This printed menu has tiny discrepancies compared to the menu board and online menu (eg. “local crispy side stripe shrimp” versus “local ocean wise prawns”, and the part about curries).

I was very pleased to see five different pad thais on offer. The menu is more varied than I expected, with some surprises like holy basil stir fries:

I haven’t had a real HOLY BASIL dish in ages. Thai Basil on Thurlow near Davie sorta used to do a thai holy basil stir fry years ago, but it’s hard to find this kind of dish nowadays. I think Kin Kao on Commercial does one (early review of Kin Kao here). If you’ve never tried a Thai holy basil dish before, do it! It’s got a heady, perfumey quality that’s quite different from regular Thai basil.

Anyways, we were here to focus on the pad thai, so the pad grapow dishes will have to wait until next time.

Pricewise, it’s on par with Longtail Kitchen, Freebird, and Fat Mao level of pricing. Not cheap eats, but restaurant-quality food at accessible prices in an accessible atmosphere.

Pok Pok Som Pomegranate Soda ($4). It’s the Som syrups mixed with carbonated water and ice. This one’s got that pomegranate flavour but with an extra tartness and slight aged vinegar funkiness. More tart than sweet. For health nuts there’s a turmeric soda too.

My partner in crime Moyenchow got a Thai Iced Tea ($5). She said the tea flavour was very pronounced and not overpowered by sweetness. That sounds good in my books. Even though Thai people like their ice tea really sweet, I prefer the sweetness to be knocked down by at least a third 😉

Seasonal special curry: Green Curry Spot Prawns on Rice ($20). Came with four large spot prawns, and a little container of fish sauce.

The prawns were split down the back, presumably to clean them, but it also made them easier to eat. The curry was mild for a green curry, but plenty of flavour. Veggies (which included eggplant, green beans, onions, and red bell peppers) were cooked just right. The prawns were also cooked just right, but the tail meat was a bit mushy, which leads me to believe that these prawns died with their heads attached. Whether or not that’s a deal-breaker for you depends on how picky you are with the freshness of your spot prawns. I grew up with my parents buying bags of spot prawns from Steveston and a sometimes the prawns had the same mushy/mealy texture. The way the prawns were cooked, I was able to eat the entire head, the legs, the tail, and most of the shell. The contents of the head were sweet ambrosia with a hint of bitter.

I’m still trying to figure out if the default spice level here is mild or not. If you love HOT, you should probably specify when you order, even if the staff don’t ask you.

Crispy Wings with Thai Garlic ($8). These are the same wings that are served at Longtail Kitchen. Whatever I’ve said about these magical wings in my other reviews applies here too. Juicy, crispy, with magic dust sprinkled on top, and a sour/sweet/salty/spicy nam jim jaew dipping sauce.

The basic Pad Thai ($12) with tamarind, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, chives, and I’m pretty sure those tiny tiny chunks of pickled turnips that you probably wouldn’t notice unless someone pointed them out to you but now you’ll never forget and will miss them when other places don’t use them. Moyenchow ordered this one specifically mild (she’s chili-averse), so they in fact didn’t put any chilies in this one. The major flavour was tart tamarind, which is a plus, but we thought that maybe it would benefit from a spice element or maybe amping up the savoury element. Noodles were fantastic. Stretchy and textural. What noodles in pad thai should be!

Pad Mi Korat ($13), northern-style pad thai with crispy pork. The pork are slices of belly, cooked to a semi-chewy/semi-tender state. While I wouldn’t say any of it was crispy, it looked like it had been fried at one point. No detectable heat in this one either, so this one tasted similar to the regular pad thai except with actual meat in it.

I added some of the provided chili flakes and it improved the profile a bit. While on the whole the pad thais were good, I think I need to return and order them at the “house default” or perhaps “medium” to get a better sense of their food. The noodles already have that addictive chewiness though, so I might end up back here really soon.

This publicly accessible paper towel dispenser came in handy when I needed to wipe the sweat from my scalp.

Early assessment: I like this place and want to return to try more of their menu (especially the holy basil dishes and the pad thai with crab!).

2 days agoby dennisthefoodieS H R I N K A G E // No shrinkage here with @backcountrybrewing 's impressive 3.4% #IndiaSessionAle#IWasInThePool ! You get most of the juicy goodness of a full-on #hazyipa but with half the alcohol! The finish is understandably lighter and waterier but for the style it's quite an accomplishment. #craftbeer#backcountrybrewing#yvr#vancouver // You might've noticed way less beer posts lately. I've stopped drinking alcohol on most weekdays, so cut down my consumption by half. Feels good but my beer fridge is bursting at the seams. Strictly cream of the crop from now on (hopefully).

2 days agoby dennisthefoodieC A U L I F L O W E R // Wicca whipped up a #ChickenCurry with #RoastedCauliflower for #dinner . The extra roasting step is so worth it! She also threw in mushrooms, sweet potato, tomatoes, and carrots. We've been using Megachef blue label fish sauce for cooking lately and it's great — a bit bolder and saltier than Red Boat. (We still love Red Boat for making nuoc cham though!) The Megachef has great depth, which you can tell by tasting side-by-side with cheap fish sauce, which tastes mostly like salt and stank. #curry#yvr#vancouver

2 days agoby dennisthefoodieS W E E T ' N S W E E T P O R K // Some good #Korean#SweetAndSourPork ($18) with crunchy rice flour batter at @andamiro_korean_bistro . Like Chinese S&S pork, this Korean version is still plenty sweet and good but you have to be in the mood. Swipe to see the royal flourish of omelette strips on their Royal Beef Japchae ($16) and decent Bulgogi Stew ($12). Good value and service at one of the few Korean restaurants in Vancouver proper. They gotta do something about the smell of gas though. It's not the mercaptan (rotten eggs)

2 days agoby dennisthefoodieC H E E S E ' N C H I C K E N // Some good/decent #Korean eats this past weekend with @michelle_wsy . (Great seeing you and the family! Thanks for the exclusive American Spam!) I finally got to try a Korean bbq dish with melty cheese in it: #ChickenBulgogi ($13) with #cheese (+$3). Amusing but not particularly delicious. Watery bland cheese hardens fast. The restaurant @andamiro_korean_bistro is in a convenient location (for us), has good value and prompt service, with decent food that does the job. Quick review of this place now posted on my blog. #andamiro

2 days agoby dennisthefoodieO U T O F S E A S O N // No kidding, #uni is totally out of season right now, but that didn't stop me from trying these dirt cheap big unis (3 for $10) from Steveston. After all the work of cutting these guys open and cleaning the #seaurchin gonads, the result tasted watery with none of the silky richness that uni has from October to March. Lesson learned! (Actually I already knew this going in, but I had to test the theory for myself .) #yvr#vancouver#sashimi